Privacy Policy
Last updated 15 August 2026
farfar holds two kinds of personal information: yours, and that of the people you write to. The second kind deserves particular care, because those people did not sign up for anything — you told us about them. This page explains what we hold, why, who else sees it, and how long it stays.
Who is responsible
farfar is run by Stefan Egeberg, a sole proprietor in Iowa, United States. For the purposes of UK and EU data protection law, he is the data controller. Contact: privacy@farfar.app.
What we hold about you
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your email address | To sign you in and to tell you when a letter has been posted. |
| Your name, where you live, who is in your household, how you sign off | So your letters sound like you and can mention the people in your life by name. |
| Your postal address | Printed as the return address, so the envelope reads as coming from you and undeliverable mail comes back to your house rather than to us. |
| Your notes and letters | They are the product. |
| Photographs you upload | To print inside the letter. |
| Payment records | Which plan you are on and when it renews. We never see or store your card details — Stripe handles those and we only receive the result. |
What we hold about the people you write to
For each recipient: their name, what you call them, your relationship, their postal address, the language they read, and whatever context you give us — interests, and what is going on in their life. That last field is often sensitive. “Just moved into a care home” is health-adjacent information about someone who never filled in a form.
We hold it for one reason: to write them a letter that sounds like it was meant for them. It is never used for advertising, never sold, and never shared with anyone except the printing partner that has to put it on an envelope.
If you are receiving letters through farfar and would like us to stop, or to delete what we hold about you, email privacy@farfar.app. You do not need an account, and you do not need to explain why. We will act on it and confirm when it is done.
Our legal grounds for holding it (UK/EU)
- Performing our contract with you — your account, your notes, your letters, your payments. Without these there is no service.
- Legitimate interests — holding your recipients’ details so the letters you asked for can be written and delivered. We consider this a limited and expected use: you are writing to your own family, the data comes from you, and the recipient can have it deleted on request. If a recipient objects, that ends it.
- Consent — for photographs, which you give us by uploading them. You can remove a photograph at any time before the letter is posted.
- Legal obligation — keeping records of payments for tax purposes.
Dictation and your voice
Dictation uses the speech recognition built into your browser. On Chrome that means the audio is sent to Google’s speech service; on Safari, to Apple’s. This happens between your browser and them — the audio never reaches farfar, and we never store a recording. We receive only the text that comes back, which is then treated like anything else you typed. The app says so while the microphone is on. If you would rather not use it, type instead.
How AI is used
To compose and translate a letter, we send Anthropic’s API the notes for that letter, your sender profile, and the recipient profile. We do not send photographs, and we do not send your payment details or the addresses.
Anthropic processes this on our behalf as a service provider. Their API terms state that inputs and outputs submitted through the API are not used to train their models. The model is instructed never to invent facts, and you see and approve every letter before anything is printed.
How long we keep things
| What | How long |
|---|---|
| Photographs you uploaded | Deleted 30 days after the letter is posted. |
| The printed letter file (PDF) | Deleted 12 months after posting. It is kept that long so a lost letter can be reprinted — but it contains the photographs, so it is on a clock too. |
| Letter text and notes | Kept while your account exists — it is the archive of what you have said. |
| Account and recipient details | Kept while your account exists. |
| Payment records | Kept as long as tax law requires, typically seven years. |
Close your account and we delete your notes, letters, photographs and recipients. Ask us and we will do it sooner.
Who else processes it
| Who | What they do | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Database, sign-in and file storage | United States |
| DigitalOcean | The server the site runs on | United States |
| Anthropic | Composing and translating letters | United States |
| Stripe | Payments and card handling | United States / Ireland |
| Resend | Sign-in and notification emails | United States |
| Printing and postal partners | Printing the letter and handing it to the post. They receive the letter, the photographs and the two addresses — they cannot post it otherwise. | Varies by destination |
We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for advertising.
Data leaving Europe
farfar is run from the United States, so personal data about people in the EU or UK is transferred there. Where required we rely on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses with our providers.
Being straight with you: this is the part of this policy most in need of professional review, and it is under review. If that matters to you before you upload your family’s details, wait — or write and ask where it stands.
Your rights
If you are in the UK or EU you can ask us for a copy of what we hold, correct it, delete it, restrict how we use it, object to our use of it, or receive it in a portable format. Where we rely on consent you can withdraw it at any time. These rights belong to the people you write to as much as to you.
Email privacy@farfar.app. We answer within 30 days. You can also complain to your national data protection authority — in Denmark, Datatilsynet.
If you are in California, you have similar rights under the CCPA, including to know what we collect and to have it deleted. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined there.
Children
farfar is for adults; you must be 18 to hold an account. Letters do often contain photographs of children, uploaded by their parent or guardian. We treat those with the retention limits above and never use them for anything but printing the letter.
Security
The site is served over HTTPS. Photographs and letter files are held in private storage that is not publicly reachable — the app hands out short-lived links, and there is no URL to guess. Access to the database is restricted per account. Card details never touch our servers.
No system is perfectly secure. If we discover a breach affecting your data, we will tell you and the relevant authority as the law requires.
Cookies
We use cookies to keep you signed in. That is all. There is no advertising or analytics tracking on this site, so there is nothing to opt out of.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we will email you before it takes effect.
Contact
privacy@farfar.app for anything on this page, including a request to be removed if you are receiving letters and would rather not.